Friendly's closes 5 more stores

Updated 10:21 am, Monday, January 9, 2012

COLONIE — Five local Friendly's restaurants closed Sunday night, the company announced.

The stores that closed are at Central Avenue in Albany, Route 7 in Latham; Route 9 in Latham; Saratoga Road in Glenville; and Colonie Center in Colonie.

"Since entering Chapter 11 in October 2011, the company has sought to work with our landlords to restructure lease arrangements at locations where we believed rents did not reflect current market conditions and were significantly impacting the viability of underperforming restaurants," Maura Tobias, a company spokeswoman, said in response to a Times Union query.

Tobias said the company was able to restructure lease agreements in many locations but, "unfortunately, we were unable to reach an acceptable agreement" for the five restaurants that closed.

Tobias said the company intends to hire as many employees as possible from the closed stores at those still operating in the Capital Region.

This brings to 11 the number of Friendly's restaurants that have closed since October when the Wilbraham, Mass.-based chain filed for bankruptcy protection. This will leave five restaurants still open in the region.